


Emergency Response

by Elleth



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Awkwardness, Drabble Sequence, F/F, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 04:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15235083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elleth/pseuds/Elleth
Summary: Shrewd eyes in a bar mirror, that's how they meet the first time.





	Emergency Response

**Author's Note:**

  * For [helia7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/helia7/gifts).



> Dear Helia, here's hoping you enjoy this! ♥

Siv meets Taru first as shrewd eyes in a bar mirror where Siv has no business being that evening. 

She should be studying for her entrance exams - they want her, _... but you understand there is mandatory testing; we are a state-sponsored facility in the capital of Scandinavia and that requires both scientific expertise and an assessment screening to ensure we do not hire any personnel of questionable personality..._

And that's how Siv came to drink when she should be slamming her books into her face instead. 

If she doesn't… 

"Hi." Shrewd Eyes claims the barstool next to her. "Taru."

* 

"Siv," answers Siv, and drains her glass of brännvin, cheap stuff. "Failure at life by t'morrow, jobless, homeless, I jould shust… should shust…" Oh, she's drunk. "... find a vermin beast an' a good spot for turning troll…" 

"What?" Taru pulls the empty glass from between Siv's fingers, with a frown that says it's not the Year 0 beats blasting on loudspeaker that make Siv hard to understand. "I happen to be a strategist. Let's get you sobered up, _then_ we'll talk. What's tomorrow?" 

"Strategist, huhhh," Siv drawls, leaning in. She hopes she's smiling. "Tha's good. Yes." 

*

They get talking, then walking. The fresh air is doing Siv a world of good until they wind up on a park bench on the playground on Dalagatan under a flickering streetlight in the warm spring dim. "Maybe I'll sleep under this," Siv says, still faintly buzzing with drink, and more with nerves. "Nice bench." 

Nothing sobers her up like Taru's fingers under her chin, tipping it up, shrewd eyes laughing. "You catastrophize. I like that, it's a challenge." Next, Taru is straddling her lap, silhouetted against the evening sky. "Tonight, I'm your medicine. Distraction. _Me._ Not books."

*

That's how Siv finds herself kissing a woman the first time. Not that different from kissing a man (not that she's had a ton of experience with that either), but Taru's lips are softer, she smells nicer, cream and powder and peach liquor, and then it turns out she's shrewd _and_ sneaky. When Taru gets off Siv's lap and Siv's first impulse is to pull her back, startled by her courage, it turns out Taru's lodging is just across the road. 

And that's how Siv fails every assessment of herself, by following a stranger to her hostel room.

* 

Siv passes the scientific part of the assessment with flying colours. Her anxiety rankings are off the charts, but somehow she's managed to convince them of terrible exam nerves - Taru's advice - and anyway, she's not a danger. When she steps out of the office with a signed contract and feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders, there's Taru lounging on a bench across the street with a bottle of peach liquor, a red rose, and her shrewd eyes laughing. 

"Care to celebrate, or keeping me waiting for the next emergency?" 

Siv already knows there'll be many more next times.


End file.
